No its just UK banks charge extortionate fees for international and even just EU intra-SEPA transfers for UK personal accounts. You can tho use TransferWise to get money into Bitstamp or MtGox for just £1 but I'm not sure if it works the same for withdrawals.
My bank charges £25 per SEPA transfer, what a joke!
A bank transfer is just a few entries into a computer database front end.
In fact there's probably very little that even has to be entered by hand by the bank staff nowadays and most of what is entered is already done by the customer his or herself in the case of an online account. So a SEPA should only cost about 25p not £25.
The bank cartel continue to con the public into thinking an international money transfer is some big deal that must be very expensive. It's just playing on people's assumptions and what they have become used to.
It was the same with international phone calls. People were taught to accept an international phone call is something expensive.
It took Skype to come along and change this. And likewise iTunes with record industry and their insane CD prices.
This is why we need transfer systems like Bitcoin to put an end to this nonsense.
The point people have made about how difficult it is to purchase or trade in Bitcoins in the UK is very true. The banks and government in the UK want to deny Bitcoin the chance to gain any footing in the country.
They want to keep Bitcoin out of the UK and keep it marginalised because it threatens:
1) the banking system as it exists right now and 2) the government's fiscal policy and autonomy with Sterling - UK of course doesnt have the Euro and wants to keep control over its own currency.
It's going to be one hard struggle against the City of London on this. Good luck to Max Keiser if he wants to open a bitcoin exchange based in the UK. Frankly I wouldnt even bother. It would be too risky with all the hostility and regulation. Host it somewhere else well out of the way of London.